Fertilizer plant had history of complaints

Wednesday's fire at the West Fertilizer plant sent a towering plume of smoke into the sky over the small Central Texas community.

Wednesday's fire at the West Fertilizer plant sent a towering plume...

For years before an explosion destroyed the West Fertilizer Co. plant in the Central Texas town of West, neighbors had repeatedly called state authorities with complaints about leaks, the odor of ammonia and concerns about a nearby middle school and nursing home.

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality files show that complaints to the agency or its predecessors date back to at least 1987.

Zak Covar, the commission's executive director, said that West Fertilizer was cited for not having a permit in 2006 after a neighbor called to report a powerful odor of ammonia coming from the plant that lasted for hours.

As a result of that complaint, Covar said, his agency "got them into compliance" in 2007.

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But the 2006 call was hardly the first time the state's environmental watchdog had been made aware of problems at West Fertilizer, which handled the crop needs of two generations of cotton, wheat, corn and maize farmers in the area. By then, it had been known to authorities for decades.

Litany of lapses

According to state and court documents:

* In 1987, a couple called to complain that their child was being sickened by ammonia fumes. The Texas Air Control Board, the agency of that time, inspected and did detect anhydrous ammonia fumes in the air.

* On May 2, 1991, police officer Jesse Anderson was out on patrol in West when he received a call of ammonia fumes leaking from the plant. He found "ammonia leaking into the air at a rapid rate" and perceived the leak to be a "threat of imminent danger" to people living in the area, including the people in the nursing home, some 750 feet from the plant. A lawsuit later filed by the officer says he could not reach anyone at the plant and so faced a choice: Evacuate the nursing home or attempt to shut off the flow of ammonia. He turned off a valve himself and was severely burned.

* In June 1992 the company was cited by the state for constructing 6,000-gallon ammonia tanks without a permit.

* On June 14, 1996, the Waco Regional Office of the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission received "numerous" calls from the public concerning the smell of ammonia. Officials did a walk-around. They smelled nothing. The company suggested the odor was from a sewer line at the nursing home.

* On Aug. 8, 1997, a neighbor called to complain of "strong ammonia odors" from West Fertilizer five times that month.

West Fertilizer was not avoiding regulators. In 1999, it filed a Risk Management Plan with the Environmental Protection Agency as required.

Not everyone smelled it

But more complaints came in that year. On March 23, a resident called with concerns about "the strong smell of ammonia," and mentioned the school nearby.

State inspectors came out that time, too, but again didn't smell anything. The owner told the state inspector his employees walked the facility every day searching for leaks. "We do everything we can to prevent leaks and to be a good neighbor," he said, according to notes in state records.

Federal notice

Environmental Protection Agency officials visited the company in March 2006 and noted several problems. West Fertilizer, at this point, was out of compliance with both the state and federal requirements.

The EPA fined the company $2,300 in August 2006 for not filing a sufficient risk management plan, as required for all companies that store hazardous materials.

Another federal agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, had not inspected the plant since 1985.

OSHA's records show that the West Chemical & Fertilizer Co., as the plant was known at the time, was fined $30 for a serious violation for storage of anhydrous ammonia.

In its June 2011 risk management plan, the company reported that 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia was being stored at the site, but downplayed the risks.

"The worst-case release scenario would be the release of the total contents of a storage tank released as a gas over 10 minutes," the company claimed, according to a copy on file with the EPA.

The TCEQ's Covar said the facility has been in existence since 1962 and was grandfathered until about six years ago when it changed ownership.

"I believe in 2004 they were supposed to come in and get reauthorized," he said. "They failed to do so."

Covar said he didn't know why the facility didn't get reauthorized, but on June 9, 2006, a neighbor called to report that "ammonia smell very bad last night from Fertilizer Plant, lingered until after they went to bed."

That complaint was investigated by the state on June 20, 2006, and the company was issued a notice of violation for not having the necessary permit. West Fertilizer applied for its permit later that year, saying it respectfully sought "to continue our small contribution to the nation's food and fiber supply."

Safety placards missing

In recent months the plant was cited for something that could, in the coming days, prove salient.

The U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration visited the site and found tanks that lacked some of the special placards emergency responders rely on to know exactly what is inside cargo containers.

Other signs were illegible. Inspectors found large quantities of anhydrous ammonia stored in "unauthorized" tanks that failed to meet safety standards. Also, according to the report by the agency's representatives, "at the time of the inspection (the company) was unable to produce a copy of their security plan."

A proposed fine of $10,100 was reduced to $5,250 in June 2012 after West Fertilizer took corrective measures.

Reporters Lise Olsen and Peggy Fikac and The Associated Press contributed to this story.